Bill Engvall: Keeping it real for Detroit audiences

Comedian and actor Bill Engvall appears at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Saturday. Courtesy photo

Bill Engvall admittedly has a real soft spot in his heart for the Detroit area. After all, he recorded his first two comedy albums — both of which he said went platinum — at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak.

“Mark and I have been friends for years,” Engvall said during a recent interview. “He booked me in his club for a long time. I just love that room. I wanted to record them in a club because that’s where I started. I think that’s where you get the real reaction.

“Nowadays — I say this not patting myself on the back — people, they’re paying money to see me. They’re coming because Bill Engvall’s there. Back then, you’re just a guy and you gottta work at it and be funny. People in that area of Detroit, they know what they like and thank God they decided they like my sense of humor. I thought what a great place to record a comedy album. It’s the quintessential comedy club.”

Engvall has moved up in the neighborhood, graduating from comedy clubs to The Palace of Auburn Hills where he performs on Saturday.

“Not too bad for a shabby kid from Texas,” he said.

The Blue Collar Comedy Tour comedian said he prepares for arena shows the same way he gets ready for a club performance.

“I love doing this so much that, to me, it’s just a bigger venue,” Engvall said. “I think you have to have that attitude because otherwise you get caught up on, ‘Wow.’ It’s like that scene in ‘Hoosiers’ when he took the team into the big arena and he put the tape measure to the rim and said, ‘See, same height that ours is.’ That’s the way you have to look at it. By using that, I can give the audience the type of show that I want to give them, that laid-back Bill Engvall-style of humor.”

Since beginning his career in the early 1990s, Engvall has touched upon just about every medium. He hit the stage with the aforementioned Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy. Engvall appeared on the small screen as part of the now-canceled “The Bill Engvall Show” on TBS as well as “Designing Women.” He released nine comedy albums, including the recent “Aged and Confused,” and one book, “Just a Guy: Notes from a Blue Collar Life.” So what’s next for the Renaissance man?

“I don’t know,” he answered. “I’ve been so blessed to achieve every goal I’ve set for myself. I think what I’d like to do now is a two-fold attack. I’d like to continue to be a better comedian and have that longevity of a career which I’ve got so far. I’d like to be doing this when I’m 70 or 80 years old. Then I’d like to also start branching into film. I’m trying to get some independent films doing, to show people I can do this.

“And it wouldn’t suck to have another TV show. We had three great seasons on ‘The Bill Engvall Show’ and unfortunately that got canceled because they were going in another direction, as I was told. But I think they’ll be another one. I really enjoy the acting. I still love the stand up the best. Acting gives me a chance to do what I can’t do on stage, which is be other people.”

Throughout this journey, Engvall has learned to be honest with the audience.

“It would be stupid for me to do drug humor or fat jokes because I don’t do drugs and I’m not fat,” Engvall said. “Be real with the audience and talk from the heart — that’s what I’ve learned. That’s what I do in my show and it seems to be successful. Do stuff you know about talk about what you know about.”

In doing that, he wonders aloud, “If I didn’t know Bill Engvall, would I find this funny?” He said that’s a very high standard to subscribe to.

“Because of where I’m at now, it’s easy to fall into that, ‘Oh I don’t have to work so hard at it now,’” said Engvall who finds Chris Rock, Lewis Black, Steve Martin, Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby funny, among others. “But I want to do this for a long time so I have to work hard at it.

“I’ve never been one of these sit down with a pen and a pad of paper guys. I’ll see things and it’ll make me laugh or I’ll think, So that’ll be funny.’ Now the downside of that, there’s times when you go through periods in life when things just aren’t that funny. So you go through these dry spells. Fortunately I’ve been able to release my ninth album now called ‘Aged and Confused,’ and the Comedy Central special will be out the weekend of Thanksgiving. I’m fortunate enough to keep it fresh. When I come back to the area, I try to have 70 to 80 percent new material. They want to hear some of the old stuff. Unlike a singer, people go to an Eagles concert, they gotta play ‘Take It Easy.’ But when you go to a comedy show, once you’ve heard the joke, you’ve heard it. You’ll get laughs, but not the ones you did the first time through.”

On this jaunt that brings him to The Palace of Auburn Hills, he continues his theme of family-based humor.

“It’ll be a lot of new material,” he said. “I’ve made my career talking about my kids and raising families. Now my wife and I are empty nesters. This album was really fun to put together and the show is right now. I’m going back to writing the way I used to write, before I had kids talking about getting older and dealing with those issues.”